


A Test of Will

by Aeylin



Category: Warframe
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2021-02-18 17:35:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21530695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aeylin/pseuds/Aeylin
Summary: Ever since her reawakening from the reservoir on Lua, Tiya has struggled with feelings of loneliness and self-doubt, arising from the loss of her warframe as well as her legs. However, a mysterious distress call from an abandoned corpus freight ship soon reignites in her the will to fight and carry on.
Kudos: 10





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Contains spoilers from the in-game quest, “The Second Dream”.

_I want to be as fast as the wind._

_...decades of hibernation have caused the muscles to atrophy..._

_To fly as free as a bird._

_...may be crippled indefinitely, in this state..._

_To feel the universe beneath my feet._

Tiya was much like the other void-children that awoke from the sleepless moon, except that years of inaction took a heavier toll on her body. After her warframe had carried her out of the reservoir, she found that she could not gain back control of her legs.

It also did not help that her original warframe was destroyed in the process of escaping the sleepless moon. She could not remember much of her life before her reawakening, and the loss of said warframe cut her off to whatever memories she had of her First Dream. From Tiya’s point of view, she was thrust suddenly into an alien and inhospitable world in which she was absolutely powerless to affect.

Sometimes, she wished she was back in that pod, sleeping blissfully.

But alas, dreams were always more beautiful than reality, and she awoke for the fourteenth hundred day since she left the gilded reservoir. Tiya counted the days that had passed with bitter resignation of a fate she had consigned herself to - that of the inevitable passage of time eventually claiming her body and mind. She did not seek death, nor did she fear it. She simply just was.

_Dream, not of what you are...but of what you want to be._

Tiya scanned the comms channel for any noise. Negative. Radio silence. It had been two hundred and fifty-two days since the Lotus’ disappearance, and it was highly likely she had left them for good. But still, she checked that channel every day on the slim chance she would hear something, anything, from the enigmatic Lotus.

God knows, she needed something to hang on to.

Suddenly, static! The formerly silent channel spluttered to life as noise begun to burst out like wild splotches of paint flung against a wall.

“Motus - did you hear that? Initiate channel override and increase its amplitude...oh, and track the source of that signal as well!”

A voice began to press through the wall of static. Tiya’s heart fluttered. Slowly she began to make out words.

**DREAMER...LOST CHILD...COME HOME...RETURN TO THE SOURCE...**

The voice had a tremulous yet intimidating quality to it, pronouncing every word with great emphasis. It sounded both masculine and feminine, as if multiple people were talking at once.

“My scanners indicate that the source of the signal originates 250000 starmiles from our current position,” said Tiya’s cephalon dispassionately. “Near the orbit of Eris. Frequency type: unknown, although it most closely resembles that emitted by a Class B2 Corpus freight ship.”

“Thanks Motus,” muttered Tiya as she mulled over his words. Her heart was still pounding. What could that message mean? _Was it a distress call? Should she, no, could she even respond in the first place?_ She did not know what she would be up against. Without a warframe, wading into uncertain territory like this was a death sentence.

“Put Reya on call,” Tiya hesitantly decided after a while. “Maybe she can help.”

Reya’s voice crackled to life. “Tiya, is that you?”

“Reya, there’s an unknown signal emanating 250000 starmiles from my location. Frequency type B2. I-I think it might be a distress call - “

“Tiya, stay where you are, do not respond. I’m just 500000 starmiles from your location - “

“Actually, I just needed your advice. I was thinking of going in myself-“

“Tiya, don’t do anything rash. Let me respond to it. Especially not after what happened the last time.”

“No really, I can - “

“Tiya, please. At least wait for me before you go?”

A pause. Tiya hoped she could convey her sulking over the communications channel.

“Alright. I’ll wait.”

“Thank you Tiya. I’ll be there as soon as possible.”

Then the channel snapped into silence.

For a while, Tiya sat in her operator’s chair, fuming. Reya was well-intentioned, sure, but she also could be patronising at times. She hated that feeling of powerlessness, of having to depend on others. She despised her kind’s over-reliance on those machines made of sword-steel. She cursed to herself.

_This can’t go on forever. I need a warframe. I need something, anything to get me out of this cage..._

_I want to be as fast as the wind._

_To feel the universe beneath my feet._

With quavering breath and trembling hands, Tiya made her choice.

“Motus...set liset trajectory to the source of the signal.”

“Are you certain, operator.” Motus droned. “Likelihood of survival is estimated at 0.2 percent.”

“I meant what I said,” Tiya said through gritted teeth. “I’d rather face death than continue to live through this personal hell. Clock engine power at 90 percent.”

As the engines roared to life, Tiya smiled to herself with detached bemusement. Ironic that the possibility of death made her feel so much more alive than she had ever felt before.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Against her friend’s instructions, Tiya ventures into the abandoned corpus ship alone. However, she soon finds out that the ship is far from abandoned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Contains spoilers from the in-game quest, “The Second Dream”.

“There it is, I see it!”

A dark shadowy mass drifted in the midst of an asteroid belt. On closer inspection, several red lights blinked lethargically from the inky blackness, confirming Motus’ prediction of the presence of a Corpus freight ship.

“My preliminary scans show no signs of life on the ship. Chance of survivors is an estimated 0.06%.”

Tiya paused to consider her next move. Usually one required an archwing to breach a ship’s interior, but seeing that she lacked both an archwing and a warframe...

“Motus, if I’m not back in an hour, send a distress signal to Reya.”

“What are you going to attempt, Operator?”

Tiya closed her eyes as she felt her surroundings melt away into the back of her mind, her somatic link a bright light among the blackness.

“I’m going in myself.”

Her mind buzzed with static as she tried to imagine a point on the ship to focus on. Transference without a warframe was difficult as there was no point of reference, but if one focused on a specific area with utmost clarity, such a feat could be managed.

Tiya strained to think. She could enter through the bottom of the ship - where the engines were, but a distress signal would more likely originate from the communications beacon at the top...

With a pop and a ringing in her ears, she suddenly materialised in the middle of a cold and metallic room. Tiya never really liked the feeling of transference. It muddled her mind, and left her feeling dull and exposed.

And now, she was more vulnerable than ever. An operator without a warframe, crawling around in an abandoned Corpus ship? She forced down the pangs of regret that were rising from her gut. _No, I have to do this. I have something to prove._

Tiya pressed on her earpiece. “Motus, how do you read?”

“Loud and clear Operator. Transference is holding.”

She breathed in heavily. “Time to find the source of the signal.”

Tiya looked around at the room she was in. It appeared to be a storage closet of sorts, with stacks of containers and lockers piled upon each other. In front of her was a single door, with its access console glowing in the dark. There was only one way out.

Step by step, Tiya used her hands to pull her body forward, her limp legs dragging along the floor. After a painstaking while, she finally reached her destination, sliding up against the wall as her fingers reached for the console.

A simple Corpus hexegonal lock. Within minutes, she managed to override controls and open the door. In the next room however, she saw...

Masses of writhing flesh that had engulfed the room like a coat of paint. Bulbous, pulsating tentacles grew from every murky recess, and wisps of unnatural light drifted to and fro in the air. Tiya’s jaw dropped.

_The Infestation._

_Curses. This was not good._ Even though she was a daughter of the void, she was still composed of flesh and bone. A nesting ground for the hemocyte virus.

Tiya scrambled back, arms reaching for the door, when a familiar voice echoed around her.

**MY CHILD...YOU HAVE COME HOME...**

_A trap!_ “Not interested!” Tiya fumbled with the access console, but it seemed that the door was inexplicably locked. _Shit. My pride got the better of me and now I’ve gone and got myself into this situation._

**MY CHILD...WHY DO YOU REJECT ME...GIVE YOURSELF TO US...**

A chorus of wails punctuated the last word spoken by the voice, as the infested drew around her. Tiya shut her eyes and tried desperately to focus on her somatic link that was 300 metres away beyond the airlock of the ship.

_Focus Tiya, focus! Transfer yourself back onto your liset!_

Columns of infested mass exploded and twisted themselves around her. Tiya’s consciousness shot out into a great black expanse, searching for the guiding light of her somatic link, for anything to get her out of this mess...

She was too late. Her consciousness thrashed and flailed under the tumultuous sea of a thousand voices screaming in unison, threatening to drag her under. The infestation had gotten to her.

Tiya blacked out.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Contains spoilers from the in-game quest, “The Second Dream”.

Stars. Tiya was adrift in the midst of space, watching asteroids and dust float past. But she knew this wasn’t really space. It was an illusory front, a self-defense mechanism created by her subconsciousness to block out the sensory overload from the infested hive mind. Situations like this meant that she was brain dead, or close to it.

Millions of alien voices chattered around her. She could sense them all, an enormous magnitude of different consciousnesses all connected through an intensely complex yet elegant web. Try as she might to do otherwise, Tiya couldn’t help but listen to one of these voices. At first, it was a muffled whisper, like eavesdropping on a conversation in another room. But the longer she listened, the louder it grew, bolstered by nearby voices who echoed the same words.

_**Come into the fold and we shall rebuild you anew.** _

_**Join us and you will want nothing. You will tread the entire expanse of the universe.** _

Its words felt so tantalising, so...alluring. Tiya felt a stirring in her legs, as if she were experiencing the feeling of phantom limbs, but not the sensation of legs...it was more like a series of interconnected appendages that had hooked itself onto the underside of her torso. It felt foreign and strangely invigorating at the same time. It almost lulled Tiya into letting her guard down.

As soon as she thought that, she began to notice the presence of something else. Amongst the crowded neural network of the hemocyte virus, there was an empty space of sorts. An alcove of silence. None of the alien minds seemed to occupy that area, a curious anomaly in a sea of voices. Tiya reached out towards it...

Something inside that space stirred, reacting to Tiya the moment she crossed the threshold. But it did not resist. It merely acknowledged Tiya’s presence, as if expecting her to do something...

_This feels all too familiar. Wait...could it be!?_

There was an inkling of familiarity to this sensation. It was something Tiya hadn’t experienced before, since she awoke from her First Dream...

_A Warframe!_

A semi-sentient husk, waiting to be controlled by a Tenno. But what was it doing here, in the midst of the Infestation?

No matter, there was no time to question. Pulling together all her mental strength, Tiya pushed her consciousness into the warframe, the familiar sound of transference static buzzing in her ears...


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Contains spoilers from the in-game quest, “The Second Dream”.

Tearing herself from a thick, fleshy growth, Tiya rose to see her own body lying a few metres away from her. A panicked excitement hit her. 

_I’m in a warframe!_

She looked down at herself. Her body was slim, covered with a marble-coloured carapace. Vein-like cracks ran down the front of her stomach, which led down to her legs - stocky and painted with intricate flowing lines. This was not a warframe she was familiar with. 

As if enraged at losing Tiya from their grip, the Infestation swelled intensely around her, its multitude of appendages and tentacles gesturing menacingly. 

**TRAITOR**

The voices sneered. All around her, the corpses of fallen Corpus crewmen rose up from the ground, with squirming flesh filling the spaces of missing limbs. Tiya had to get out before they overwhelmed her. 

_It would be a massive waste if I got killed right after I acquired a warframe,_ Tiya thought. Leaping into action, she took a few steps in her warframe towards her own body. She stumbled and tripped onto the ground headfirst. 

_Shit. I forgot how to use my legs._

There was little time for a crash course. Tiya crawled on all fours towards her body and haphazardly slung it over her shoulder. By then, crowds of infested crewmen were gaining on her position. She had to find a way out of this ship, fast. 

It had been ages since she’d attuned to a warframe. They were essentially conduits for Tenno void magics. She took a deep breath (if warframes could even breathe) and focused on channeling her void energy through her body. Slowly, the cracks in her carapace began to glow with an unnatural blue hue. 

_That’s good. It means that this warframe is still functional. But what is it able to do?_

_Slim warframes usually can’t sustain much hits, so I doubt I can charge my way through those infested crewmen. Maybe rain fire on them? Cause explosions? It’d destroy the airlock, but I don’t have much of a choice right now._

Her fingers tingled, coursing with void energy. 

_All right. Here goes nothing._

Tiya held her arms out and released the stores of void power she had been holding in. 

_**SNAP!** _

In that instant, a powerful force pulled her forward, as her surroundings blinked out of existence...

Stars. Tiya found herself adrift in space again, but this time it wasn’t an illusion. Looking back, she saw the forlorn outline of the abandoned Corpus freight ship slowly shrinking in the distance. 

_Portals. I can create portals!_

In the distance, a small figure sped towards her. As it got closer, Tiya recognised it as Reya’s warframe piloting an archwing. She closed her eyes as she allowed herself to be rescued. It was over. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Contains spoilers from the in-game quest, “The Second Dream”.

_I want to be as fast as the wind._

_Free as a bird._

_To feel the universe beneath my feet._

It was a place lost to all of the Tenno. They only got pieces of it back in the darkest recesses of their minds, but most of it was still unrecoverable, eroded by time and the void.

_The Zariman 10-0._

Once every week, Tiya’s mother would wheel her out onto the viewing gallery to watch the stars float past. They would share a moment in each other’s presence before returning to their day to day activities.

During one of these occasions, Tiya asked her mother a question.

_“Do you dislike me?”_

_“No, not at all. Why do you worry yourself with these questions my child?”_

_“Because I can’t run and dance like the other children?”_

Tiya’s mother put both hands on her shoulders. _“You mustn’t think of yourself that way. In spite of your disadvantages, you still wake up every day to run errands for da. You travel from one end of the ship to the other just like any other child. You still are as loving and beautiful as the day you were born. Why would I think any lesser of you?”_

Tiya fell silent.

_“It is precisely because of your condition that I cherish you so. Even with numerous challenges you still persevere day by day.”_

_“You embody the tenacious spirit that has defined our people. Our kind will always find a way.”_

The faceless woman reached down and kissed Tiya on the cheek.

_“As I have always loved you.”_

In the years to come, Tiya would forget her mother, and most of her life on the Zariman 10-0. But she never forgot that message, which she carried in her heart forever.


End file.
